Abstract: »Katie Barclay examines the roles of female consent and male force in courtship rituals. While eighteenth-century women had few opportunities to consent actively to sex, resistance was thought compulsory and the female will was to be believed to be something to be overcome by men – both in sex and marriage. The result, as Barclay shows, was a widespread toleration and expectation of physical force in courtship practices, and the normalization of sexual violence in heterosexual relations.« (Source: Anne Greenfield. »Introduction.« Interpreting Sexual Violence, 1660-1800. Edited by Anne Greenfield. London 2013: 8)